2.) History: was assigned tasks or project multiple people failed previously and was first to succeed.
3.) Tasks and projects assigned to him/her move with reasonable speed, does not need handholding. When other people take over, they don't complain all that much and are able to continue without encountering major wtgs.
I guess it was to show me that I was thinking too much like a C programmer, he rewrote my program in about 10 lines of Perl.
He was always willing to listen when I had design ideas that differed from his own. When my ideas were better, he'd incorporate them into our plans.
We had a four man team that was probably the most productive one of which I have ever been a member.
This is what makes someone a good Tech Lead and/or manager.
I have heard about a case where really the best programmer left, and now everybody else had more responsibility, had to learn about parts of the code they did not know previously, had to fix harder problems.
So, everybody else was getting better because the one person who could help with the hard stuff was not there anymore.
But I honestly can't remember where I heard that...
They were, as individuals, very productive, but they suppressed the productivity of the rest of the team.